Barcelona sign $25 million Intel sponsorship

...for a logo inside the shirt



The sponsorship deal is said to be worth $25 million (€18.2 million) with Intel under which the chipmaker's logo will be printed on the inside of players' shirts.

The idea behind the unusual positioning of the logo is that it will be revealed when a player lifts his shirt to celebrate a goal.

Lionel Messi, Neymar and Andrés Iniesta would be under no obligation to display the logo, which will be added to the shirts for the first time in Saturday's La Liga home match against Villarreal.


As part of their first foray into football sponsorship, Intel will also provide technology to players and coaching staff as well as the recruits at Barça's academy.


Deborah Conrad, Intel's chief marketing officer, said: "We did not want to put the players under any obligation to show the logo a specific number of times but we do know that such goal celebrations are a big part of the culture of the sport."



The location of the logo itself is odd enough but the implication is that the players are to reveal the logo through goal celebrations...Even the denials of it not being obligatory implicitly illustrates that their idea for the logo is to be seen through goal celebrations of taking the shirt off or lifting it up...Something our players rarely do & not just because it would be bookable...Moreover, will there then be incentives?...The more you lift it up and flash Intel, you'll earn bigger bonuses?...Just very very odd

I mean, it's great, it's extra money to pay the bills but I think UEFA will have something to say about this

Just bring the money

I read it´s 5 M per year during 5 years.

Inside the shirt They must have not have enough money to get on the front cover. What if a player has something to dedicate a goal like Messi to Thiago. Would be extremely odd to see Intel along with that

Correct me if I'm wrong now Qatar Airways is on the front, Unicef on the back, and Intel on the inside.. and to think a couple of years ago we had no sponsors. While we're at it we should get Bwin on our sleeves.

Moe said:

Correct me if I'm wrong now Qatar Airways is on the front, Unicef on the back, and Intel on the inside.. and to think a couple of years ago we had no sponsors. While we're at it we should get Bwin on our sleeves.

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Unicef is not a sponsor

Moe said:

Correct me if I'm wrong now Qatar Airways is on the front, Unicef on the back, and Intel on the inside.. and to think a couple of years ago we had no sponsors. While we're at it we should get Bwin on our sleeves.

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Or sponsor the player's underwear, see who will strip for cash after a goal

Moe said:

Correct me if I'm wrong now Qatar Airways is on the front, Unicef on the back, and Intel on the inside.. and to think a couple of years ago we had no sponsors. While we're at it we should get Bwin on our sleeves.

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Do you want good players to be bought with which money?

People still talking smack about sponsorship? In this oil driven football economy it's impossible to stay competitive without sponsors. It's the reality of the world we are living in. Without these "sponsors" Neymar would not be at the club and we couldnt pay Messi 16m a year.

This could be a grey area, have players not in the past been fined/banned for revealing logos in games?

Not even close to knowing the rules and I am sure they would have checked them though.

cule4life said:

People still talking smack about sponsorship? In this oil driven football economy it's impossible to stay competitive without sponsors. It's the reality of the world we are living in. Without these "sponsors" Neymar would not be at the club and we couldnt pay Messi 16m a year.

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There are very naive fans

JamDav1982 said:

This could be a grey area, have players not in the past been fined/banned for revealing logos in games?

Not even close to knowing the rules and I am sure they would have checked them though.

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Does the rule apply to official sponsors? Im sure paddy power wasnt one

cule4life said:

Does the rule apply to official sponsors? Im sure paddy power wasnt one

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No idea at all, cant see them being too happy about players flipping over their strip to show logos when scoring but not sure of the rules. Though could see them changing them.

coura said:

Do you want good players to be bought with which money?

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Of course we need the money especially when taking into account the debt we're in, but do we really need to whore our shirt like that? Our deal with Qatar Airways generates £25m a year, compare it to Manchester Uniteds deal with Chevrolet (£45m annually) and you can see how we can get "good players" without having to look like clowns.

cule4life said:

People still talking smack about sponsorship? In this oil driven football economy it's impossible to stay competitive without sponsors. It's the reality of the world we are living in. Without these "sponsors" Neymar would not be at the club and we couldnt pay Messi 16m a year.

Click to expand...

My point is not that we don't need sponsors, I actually agree with you that in order to survive as a big club we're going to need sponsors to compete with teams like PSG and City. However, I believe that we could achieve that without the need to whore our shirts, we could have a separate deal for our training kits like United for example. Don't try to tell me that the only way Barca - the club with the most members around the world and the club that gets the most visitors to their museum - can only survive with having more than one shirt sponsor. As funny as it might sound this could actually open the door to sponsor our stadiums name, just in the same manner that Unicef opened the way for our deals with Qatar and now Intel. For a club more popular and as big as Real Madrid that usually ends up spending only half as much as Madrid in the transfer market I think will be able to survive with good leadership.

Another strange piece of business by Barcelona.

You guys don´t like anything. lol